Suarez Wins Top PFA Award

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was voted the Professional Footballers' Association's Player of the Year on Sunday night.

It completes an incredible turnaround for the controversial Uruguayan who was beaten to the award last season by former Tottenham winger Gareth Bale and was booed by some of his fellow professionals as his name was read out at the event.

After missing the first four games of this season following his 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic, the 27-year-old Suarez has gone on to score 30 Premier League goals in 31 appearances, including two trebles and four goals in a devastating show at Norwich in December, to help steer his team to the top of the table.

Suarez was one of three Liverpool players up for the award, alongside strike-partner Daniel Sturridge and club-captain Steven Gerrard.

It provided some consolation for the forward and his team on a day when they handed control of the Premier League title race to Manchester City after their 2-0 defeat by Chelsea.

At the ceremony at Grosvenor House in London on Sunday evening, Suarez said: "The Premier League is full of really great players and so it is a great honour when these players recognise your work on the pitch.

"I always try my best for the team and it is nice to get awards but really this is for my team-mates and the staff at Liverpool because without their help I wouldn't have this prize."

Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard, absent for the game at Anfield due to injury, was named winner of the Young Player of the Year award ahead of Sturridge and Southampton's Luke Shaw.

Hazard had also been on the shortlist for the Player of the Year award, along with Manchester City's Yaya Toure, and Southampton midfielder Adam Lallana.

Suarez has put behind him a troublesome year which saw him agitating for a move in the summer, even at one stage claiming manager Brendan Rodgers had reneged on a deal to allow him to leave for a Champions League club.

Rodgers' handling of the situation has been impressive but the Reds boss insisted all of the credit should be with the player.

"He is a brilliant talent. I think the supporters have seen him mature over the course of the last season," Rodgers said of his striker on Friday.

"I think he was in a real low moment after that game (against Chelsea last year) but he has gone away and probably looked in the mirror and reflected on himself because he is not that type of guy and it probably just spilled over.

"He is a really intelligent man who fits the values of this club, which is all about humility, class and he has all of that. He is a sheer winner and that probably overspilled last year but his development over the last year has been remarkable both on and off the field and Liverpool have benefited from that.

"For me he is the consistently outstanding player over the course of the last year."

There was more success for Liverpool FC with ladies defender Lucy Bronze named PFA women's Player of the Year and team-mate Martha Harris voted young player of the year.